The alarm clock clanged Kim Williams awake shortly before 5 a.m. on Friday. There was golf to play – a lot of golf to play. She had finished nine holes in the first round of the U.S. Senior Women’s Open Championship when storms chased players off Brooklawn Country Club on Thursday.

After a long day, Williams found herself where she started – even par.

That was good enough to get her some extra sleep before Saturday’s third round. Not only did she hold a lofty spot on the leader board, Williams was also one of the fortunate players who completed Round 2 and did not have to wake up early again on Saturday to finish.

That sleep will be much appreciated. Williams walked 27 holes on the hilly Brooklawn Country Club layout Friday and fashioned her second consecutive even-par 72. In positive proof that she believes in payback, Williams’ birdies in Round 2 – Nos. 5 and 13 – came on two holes she played 3 over par in the first round.

“I'm redheaded, even though I don't look like it anymore, and I can be stubborn,” Williams said about her determined play, which she admits was fueled in part by the double bogey on No. 13.

“I’m not in as good a shape as I was two years ago at this event, but, you know definitely getting mad to power you through,” she said. “I’ve been at home playing, and I always walk, carry my bag, or push a cart. So it’s like, Whooo, I don’t have to carry my bag.”

Williams, who resumed Round 1 Friday on No. 3, played the final nine holes of the first round in even par, then made two birdies and two bogeys in the second round, hitting 15 of 18 greens.

“I hit a lot of really good putts, but I didn’t make a lot of them,” Williams said after a three-putt bogey on No. 18 knocked her out of red numbers. “I’m so absolutely beyond furious at that three-putt on the last hole. I hit two really good putts.”

Williams didn’t play in the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Chicago Golf Club in 2018, and was T-23 at the Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in 2019.

“I tried to play as many LPGA events as I could,” Williams said about her preparation for this championship. “I played one, Williamsburg. I could have played a couple more but my neck was bothering me so I didn't play. I also had to qualify because I didn’t play well the last round at the last Open.”

Even though she missed the cut in the LPGA event at Kingsmill, Williams gained a lot from the experience.

“I got paired with Sung Hyun Park and Madelene Sagstrom,” Williams said. “Sung Hyun Park was the No. 1 player in the world. So it was such a great pairing for me because it made me really nervous and I didn’t want to embarrass myself. You know, it was a great preparation for this to go play with two of the best players in the world.”

Williams, who was a member of the 1986 USA Curtis Cup Team and runner-up in the 1984 U.S. Women’s Amateur, almost had her career cut short by a freak incident in 1994. While entering a drug store during the LPGA Tour event near Youngstown, Ohio, Williams was struck in the neck by a stray bullet that missed a major artery by inches. The bullet was not removed until a year later.

But as proof that she is, indeed, stubborn – maybe determined is a more accurate word for her feistiness – Williams did not let the shooting incident interrupt her career. And even now, when she looks back at her play in the years right after the shooting, Williams sees squandered opportunities she’d like to make up for.

“I came in here to win,” Williams said Friday at Brooklawn. “You and I both know I have a long history of leading the Open on rounds that don’t matter. You need to lead in the fourth round. Yeah, I’m here to – it's my kind of golf course. I like it, hopefully have a good weekend.”

Those are determined words tempered by painful experiences.

In 1996, Williams was tied for first place with Beth Daniel after the first round of the U.S. Women’s Open and finished T-25. The next year, she was in fourth place of the U.S. Women’s Open after 54 holes but ended up T-19. And in in 1998, she opened the U.S. Women’s Open with a 68 to tie for the lead with Laura Davies, but finished T-31.

The wakeup call Williams had on Friday at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open was nothing like the awakening she had outside that Ohio drug store in 1994. But her response to both was similar. This redhead is more than stubborn. She just won’t quit.

Ron Sirak is a Massachusetts-based freelance writer who frequently contributes to USGA digital channels.